Success Casting the Deadlight!

DougCasting, Portholes, Steel Boat


vs151206-007Got it on the second try!  But we had a great team.  Paul, Hugh, Su and Jack all pitched in.  Having a crew is wonderful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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With the mold ready we fired up the furnace, and before we finished our break the aluminum was hot.  Actually too hot.  Way too hot.  But I decided to pour it anyway knowing that a grinder can wipe away our casting sins just like it does our welding sins.

 

 

 

 

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Being so hot, it poured like water.  About 25 pounds of aluminum went into our 200 pound mold.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Our lawyer Hugh Hood pulls the casting from the drag.  The moment of truth was here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The overly heated aluminum;  I seriously need to turn that furnace down for aluminum,  gave us a rough surface, but the casting was all intact.  And we actually like the rough surface.  It adds character.  Paul’s work on the design as well as the inscription on the inside came out beautifully.

 

 

 

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“When I let go of what I am,
I become what I might be.”   –Lao Tzu

 

le_triskell_le_symbole_celte_mediumThe symbol dates back to 3200BC from Ireland and is found in many cultures.  To the Celtics it stood for the earth, the sea, and the wind.  Gakyil or ‘wheel of joy’ to the Chinese.  The Dga in Tibet used to describe all forms of joy.

Casting Porthole Deadlights – First Failure

DougCasting, Portholes, Steel Boat

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It didn’t work but I am accustomed to that on the first try.  Come to think of it, I am accustomed to that on the second and third try too.   But we have great hope for our plans based on watching the sand slowly crack and fall out while we carefully moved the top have of the mold.  But it was still a very enjoyable day with Hugh and Su joining Paul and I.

 

Tomorrows plan calls for building a steel reinforcing frame that will be embedded in the sand for the top side of the mold and keep it from falling apart.

 

 

 

 

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This was the first time we melted aluminum in this furnace and it was amazing how fast it went.  A full 30 pound crucible was ready in less than an hour, long before we had the finished the mold.  Tomorrow we will do the molding first and not be so rushed, then fire the furnace once we have a good mold ready.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Always a beautiful sight.   Even if you’re just pouring ingots.

Casting Test

DougCasting, Steel Boat

Remember those winch capstans we were trying to cast?

vs151204-003We’ll we’re back messing with it.  I had one more bock mold that I know is too thin to work, but it made a great test sample.  Paul and I used 2″ thick ceramic blanket to make a temporary burn our furnace that will let me use larger block molds.  And we got it to 1000F with a propane burner in 2 hours that will let us not just burn it out but also let us use the better burner to melt the NiBrAl (Bronze) so we can pour into a hot mold.   That’s all good news!

 

 

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We also experimented with adding letters and patterns to our dead lights for the port holes and we like the results.   Tomorrow we hope to cast our first dead light in aluminum.

Rudder, Hatch, ROV and other

DougHatches, ROV, Rudder, Steel Boat

I had a great Thanksgiving vacation with an old salt. Dave spent his time steering a destroyer and gave me an ear full of advice. Much of it was actually useful. 🙂 And we got several projects moved down the trail.

SV Seeker says goodbye to Dave Fickle

DougSteel Boat

I have thoroughly enjoyed working beside Dave Fickle this week.   We worked on a variety of task including the ROV, the propeller shroud, main hatch, and rudder quadrant.    Dave is a kick.   Always direct and opinionated and swears like a sailor.  My kind of guy. Miss you already amigo.

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The Spinning Rock of Death. 🙂


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Dave Fickle


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Designing a transition from chain to cable.


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Mary and Fred stopped in for a visit from Kema Texas. Check out their blog about sailing and travels at Svgimmeshelter.com


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Welding on a guide for the 3/8 inch steel cable.

Sneak Peek

DougJunk Shop

open soon

Just in time for Christmas (depending upon the capabilities of postal and shipping services) we will be swinging open the doors to our Junk Shop in the very near future. We’re starting small but we will be adding items of all shapes, sizes and prices as our “Fulfillment Department” becomes established and our storeroom begins to fill up with all sorts of “Junk You Don’t Need”.

Is It Value Priced?

Absolutely not! We don’t expect to beat anybody’s prices but then we aren’t selling anything that you absolutely must have to survive. Supplying your air, food, water, or shelter is not our concern and as for safety… do we even need to go there?

Why are you doing this?

We’ve considered standing on street corners but , trust us, you don’t really want us to fling open our accordion case and break into song. While there are things like “GoFundMe”, we just aren’t about that sort of thing and we’d rather you have some sort of souvenir to help offset the dent in your wallet.

So how much are you really ripping us off for?

Big Red Mug

Big Red Mug
Sketch, not the actual mug!

We’re not gonna hide a thing. Based on our cost and handling, etc, we’ll show you the “Suggested Retail Price”, but then the actual sale price is our inflated amount. Consider the difference a donation and we won’t hold it against you if you don’t want to buy our junk.

Why now?

We’re getting down to some high dollar items including paint and things we can’t manufacture ourselves as well as the actual “getting to water” move. In essence, it’s time to shake the money tree!

When will you finally float?

That’s just it, we’d like it to be sooner rather than later. Those who have come to weld, wire, cast, sandblast, etc., have helped bump up the float date, but there’s still lots to be done. We’ve been asked time and again if there’s any way that people can help who are unable to physically come to our shipyard.Now you have a way that you can help, and considering the cost of travel these days, purchasing an overpriced piece of Junk from us, will likely SAVE you loads of money in the end.

Will you have my size?

shirt1mock

Black Tee
Sizes M-XXXL

Yes and no. We will have some apparel and we will carry a broad range of sizes but if you are way too big or too darn petite, you might want to choose a different piece of Junk. If you’ve watched our videos and read some of the comments on YouTube, you will already know that we are incapable of pleasing everyone all of the time.

When, When, WHEN?

Okay already, we should have some of our items posted this coming week however we will not be shipping anything out until AT LEAST December 9, so our advice to you is to not hang all your berries on our holly twig! Yes, we should have pulled all this together sooner in order to meet the holiday rush, but we were too busy building a boat!

Do we gift wrap?

Just getting these first items packed and to the post office will likely stretch our Christmas spirit to the end of our tinsel. This is always an option we will keep open in the future (the far off future) but for now, the answer if not just no, but HELL NO!

What if I just want to make a donation and not buy anything?

That’s easy. Just go ahead and order one of our overpriced pieces of Junk, then relist the item on ebay for the amount you think the item is REALLY worth. Once that sells, you can pocket that amount, which means you are only out the portion that you grossly overpaid from our Junk store. The difference (aka, Your Loss) is what you donated to us. How simple is that?

Gift Wrapping NOT Available!

Gift Wrapping NOT Available!

We’ll let you know as soon as the goodies arrive…. Happy Junk Shopping to you!

Rainy Day, Rudder Quadrant and ROV Work.

DougROV, Rudder, Steel Boat

vs151128-005I got to the shop this morning to find Dave carefully tapping 16, 3/8″ holes into the rudder post.  Those will be able to take over 30 tons of torke.   The maximum load for the 4 by 6 foot rudder is about 20 tons.  Water is amazing stuff.  It’s easy to forget how heavy it is.

 

 

 

 

 

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We came up with the great idea of using a stud tapped into the center of the rudder post.  This will allow us to easily position the quadrant onto the post and then line up the bolt holes around the edge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

vs151128-001 It also allows us to attache a ring nut to the stud.  When the quadrant is removed the ring nut provides a lifting point for the rudder post.  The dam thing weights close to 150 pounds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

vs151128-004After learning things to avoid and burning up two cameras and a servo we finally have everything in the main camera section and the first thruster section working.

 

 

 

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The thrusters are both working but only from an servo tester at this point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The thurster section floods.  It’s not needed but we protect the bullet connectors with 3M Scotchkote.   It’s like rubber cement.

Rudder Work

DougRudder, Steel Boat

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Randy and Dave make up a mock rudder quadrant. The quadrant is the thing that goes on top of the rudder post where steering cables and hydraulic rams attach.


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Randy cutting gaskets for hatches.


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Cutting the quadrant out of 1/2 inch plate steel.


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Figuring out where to put bolt holes in the rudder post. The quadrant bolt to the top of that 6.5 inch diameter pipe.

Thanksgiving

DougRudder, Steel Boat

Thanksgiving at SV Seeker is not just a holiday where we take time to be grateful for what we have.  Because we are grateful for what we have everyday.  And it’s not a big steel boat.  It’s the community that is growing around the boat.  It’s about people who embrace hard work, challenges, diversity, freedom, adventure, and friendship.

Thanksgiving is about sitting around a table with the people you love, sharing stories, being supportive, and encouraging each other to live their life to the fullest.   Unfortunately that Norman Rockwell thanksgiving is not what many of us experience.  But as I had dinner tonight with three of Seeker’s crew, that is exactly what I felt.   I felt privileged, and empowered.   Dream big, work hard, and surround yourself with good people. Absolutely.  That is the Seeker family, and that is what I am thankful to have around me.

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Dave Fickle spent a career designing and testing equipment for IBM and is great help in wiring up the three camera compartment on the ROV. Also many thanks to Eddie DaGrouch for redesigning the camera mounts and making the drill guide.  The new arrangement worked perfectly.

 

 

 

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Dave using a little heat to straighten the flange on the rudder post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Doing the final alignment and welding on the propeller shroud.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

vs151125-005Welding a cap plate onto the rudder post.  This will be drilled and tapped so the quadrant can be bolted to it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Working out just how crooked the holes are aligned on the rudder post, so we can make the quadrant just as crooked.